What would the world be like if Europeans had not traveled to the Americas until the late 19th century? How would the native civilizations have grown, advanced, and combined, given an extra 300-400 years to do so? Enter Altepehua, the uncolonized North American continent.
Altepehua is a large collection of tribes, nations and city-states, bound together by trade and culture. Though the Mexica, Sioux, Inuit, and other peoples retain their independence, they have grown and spread such that they have frequent contact, and have begun to influence one another, much in the same way that European nations grew along common trajectories after the fall of the Roman empire.
In addition to contact across the Altepehuan continent, extensive trade routes exist between Altepehua and Tawantinsuyu, the large jungle continent to the south. It should be noted that the northern Altepehuan peoples have also had limited contact with Asian and eastern European cultures, via the land bridge from what we would call Alaska.
The borders of Altepehua are largely natural. Tribes, nations, and city-states are spread across much of the continent, with population centers tending to develop in the more temperate middle and southern portions of the landmass. The only real limits are the sea, the frozen northern tundra, and the border with Tawantinsuyu at the extreme southern end of the continent.
Altepehua will be explorable via the journal of an English explorer, a member of the first European expedition to cross the Atlantic. I intend that the journal will be a written/illustrated work, something like a scrapbook that our explorer would keep during his journey through Altepehua. However, I am open to an interactive/digital presentation if an appropriate model presents itself. For now, the reader does not have agency, except in their ability to navigate through the journal however they wish. If I were to find an appropriate digital interpretation of the material, the viewer would at that time presumably gain more agency.
Comments (4)
I have left "The Conquest of the Incas" by John Hemming on my desk for you. It is a first hand account by a Canadian author who largely traveled the area and it explores what was and what is now there so you can deduct what could have been had we not made it there.
Nice to see that somebody besides me actually knows what Tawantinsuyu is ;)
I have a tiny collection of pre-columbian north and south american books in my office and a larger collection at home if you're interested. Some of the books are rare and can no longer be found. Let me know if you borrow one.
Posted by marientina gotsis | September 13, 2007 3:18 PM
Posted on September 13, 2007 15:18
Thanks! I will read whatever you can loan; I have a loooot of research ahead of me :-)
Posted by diana | September 13, 2007 3:44 PM
Posted on September 13, 2007 15:44
This sounds like a romantic visualization of culture, which appeals to me, a lot. That it extrapolates from historical cultures makes it, at least for me, more poignant than an original fantastic story.
Now that I have a whiff of the future for these cultures, I'm curious what struggles they face, and how that has shaped their technology. Seems like Jared Diamond's chapter is particularly relevant to the technological advancement in the Americas. I'm curious, like this traveler is curious, how these people live and die, work and play, love and fight.
Posted by Ethan Kennerly | September 16, 2007 8:20 PM
Posted on September 16, 2007 20:20
This sounds like a romantic visualization of culture, which appeals to me, a lot. That it extrapolates from historical cultures makes it, at least for me, more poignant than an original fantastic story.
Now that I have a whiff of the future for these cultures, I'm curious what struggles they face, and how that has shaped their technology. Seems like Jared Diamond's chapter is particularly relevant to the technological advancement in the Americas. I'm curious, like this traveler is curious, how these people live and die, work and play, love and fight.
Posted by Ethan Kennerly | September 16, 2007 8:21 PM
Posted on September 16, 2007 20:21